Slamming the draft JPC report on 2G scam for making observations on decisions taken during the NDA regime, BJP leader Jaswant Singh on Monday said it was absurd to find fault with then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
“I find it absurd and total travesty of facts to find fault with the functioning of a Prime Minister like Atal Bihari Vajpayee. I am not concerned about what the report has to say on my functioning as the then Finance Minister. This is not a document worth the paper on which it is printed,” he told reporters outside Parliament House.
Mr. Singh, a former Finance Minister, is a member of the JPC on 2G scam.
Asked why the NDA government went ahead with granting concessions to telecom companies despite the issue being red flagged by then Telecom Minister Jagmohan and Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, Singh said a Prime Minister should not be “subservient.”
“This is cherry picking of sentences and making the whole tree out of it,” he said.
The draft JPC report on 2G scam has questioned NDA’s decision to grant concessions to telecom companies on licence fee despite protests by Jagmohan and says the then government had to “forego” over Rs 42,000 crore in offering Migration Package to cellular operators.
On the issue of extending concessions to telecom operators such as moratorium on payment of licence fee, the panel has said the government went ahead despite opposition by then Telecom Minister who was supported by then Finance Minister.
Published - April 22, 2013 03:13 pm IST
